Fiesta de La Luz offers food, music and family activities

In this 2017 file photo, Desert Star Polynesia Hula and Tahitian dancers from Albuquerque teach residents how to dance at last year's Fiesta de La Luz. This year the festival offers more fun and music Friday and Saturday.(Photo: File Photo/Daily News)Buy Photo

LA LUZ – The Our Lady of the Light Catholic Church will host their sixth-annual Fiesta de La Luz Friday, Sept. 7, and Saturday, Sept. 8.

The festival is open to the public. It features food, music, and family activities as a fundraiser for the church.

The festival will be held in Presidio Park across from the Our Lady of the Light Catholic Church, 4 La Luz Road in La Luz. The event will run from 5 p.m.-11 p.m. on Friday evening and 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday.

Activities kick off Friday at 5 p.m. with the crowning of the festival’s king and queen and will continue through the evening with more music.

Saturday’s events will begin at 10 a.m. with a Mariachi Mass, which will be followed by Nigerian dancers and drummers, Kahuna cowboys, and other dancers and musical acts.

“The Mass is a regular Mass but the music is in Spanish," parishioner and festival organizer Marguerite Engelhardt said. "It’s very, very traditional. This is the only time (local parishioners) will see a Spanish Mass in the area.”

The Church hosts the festival each year to be able to make improvements to the church, Engelhardt said.

Past projects have included remodeling the inside of the church and installing a commercial kitchen, she said, while the money raised this year will go toward installing bathrooms in the parish hall.

“It takes the whole parish to make this work,” Engelhardt said. “We always have a major project we have in mind that we need thousands of dollars to do it with, because we are small out here. The parish hall is very old and needs improvements all the time.”

Attendees can help support the church by buying a cake at the festival’s cake walk or any of the food prepared on site, such as tacos, enchiladas and funnel cakes, Engelhardt said.

Attendees can also buy tickets for a 50/50 raffle. Tickets are $5 and offer a chance to win cash prizes or the grand prize, a pool table, she said.

“The pool table is beautiful and huge,” Engelhardt said.

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Committee chairperson Bobby Granados, right, discusses plans and safety procedures with a team member for Fiesta de La Luz at Our Lady of the Light Church.(Photo: Danielle Prewitt/For the Daily News)

This year’s festival marks the second year a festival King and Queen will be crowned, Engelhardt said. The honor is bestowed upon an elderly couple who has been with the church for their whole lives and who play an integral role in the La Luz community, she said.

The honor reflects the values the church celebrates through the annual Fiesta, she said.

“We bring the community together as a family," Engelhardt said. We are a family out here. We want to show everybody how grateful we are and how we love to be able to serve the public and have a good time with everybody.”